Well, I don't know where you are reading this from today. But I will tell you that it is cold in Dallas. Just in case you don't know me, let me just say that I am not a fan of cold weather. If you read many of my posts, you will come to know that better than you know just about anything. Over the years, it has become apparent to me that I was just born in the wrong place. I was probably supposed to have been born on the Yucatan peninsula or maybe on some pretty little eastern Caribbean island. Right now there is probably a bar on Antigua missing it's bartender because I never showed up to take the position that God intended me to have.
As much as I love to be warm and as much as I love to travel, I must admit that I have never been to one of those all inclusive resorts in the Caribbean. I don't know if they are for me. But it would be nice to find out. I have been looking at them lately for a friend who has an anniversary coming up. I must say that they are pretty intriguing. Many have private hot tubs on your rooms balcony. Others have alcohol dispensers in the room. Some have both which sounds like a dangerous combination.
I think that the problem I would run into is that eventually, they would either make me pay more to continue to stay there or they would make me leave. No one really wants to see me being taken away from some tropical paradise kicking and screaming. It just kind of ruins the relaxation thing that the rest of the visitors have going. And we all have to know our limits. Maybe that's the biggest problem that any of us encounter when we find our paradise, knowing what the limits are and when we have reached them. I saw this happen once on board a ship after a day in Costa Maya.
My travel buddy, Jenny and I had just come back from a day of zip lining in the jungle and went to the pool area to meet my parents who were also on board for a "drink of the day". Many of the people apparently hadn't returned yet from their excursions so we were able to get a good table between the pool and the bar and there were only 20 or so people around which is very unusual when you consider that you normally have to turn sideways while the ship is at sea to walk past the table we were sitting at. We were all talking about what we had done that day. Of the 20 or so other people on deck, a group of 3 women had parked themselves at the bar. They were all having a good time with the bartender and dancing between drinks. I am fairly certain that they had been in this approximate location for the entire day. While we had been "flying" through the jungle on a zip line there can be no doubt that these 3 women had been "flying" through a case of tequila. As we sat and talked, I was facing the bar and my Mom and Dad's backs were to the bar. Over my Dad's shoulder, I noticed that two of the women had gone to dance again and tried to talk the third one into going with them, but she had insisted on staying put.
As they walked away their friend apparently lost her grip on the bar. She began sliding down the barstool, not gracefully collapsing next to it, but she went butt first and sort of got lodged between two barstools with her butt about 6 inches off the ground, her arms trying to hang on to the two barstools and her legs dangling in the air. I stopped in mid sentence and said, "I think that person is falling". I had time to say all of that because she was falling in slow motion. Even after I said it, everyone else had time to turn and still see her in the process of falling. At about this time, the bartender also noticed that she was having a problem "navigating" her barstool and he reacted, as well.
As we all continued to watch, her friends came over and tried to help her get back on her barstool. She was like liquid and there was no way to prop her up on that stool. The bartender apparently had called for help and soon some other people from the ship arrived to take her away. She attempted to convince everyone that she was okay and could stay exactly where she was. But eventually even her friends began to try to convince her that she was in no shape to remain on deck at the bar. So, the ships personnel eventually brought a wheel chair out and started to take her away in it. She did try to make one more break for it attempting to leave the wheel chair before they got off deck, but once your body has become liquid, you lose quite a lot of your speed, making escape very difficult if not impossible.
Finally they got her off deck. I am sure that the next day, she probably required a wheel chair simply to haul her head around if she tried to move at all. It couldn't have been pretty. To this day, if you are around me and Jenny very much you will hear us refer to the incident. One of us might order a glass of water when everyone else is getting another glass of wine and you could hear one of us say something like "if I drink more, they might have to bring a wheel chair out". When the topic of wheelchairs come up, you know that one of us has reached a level that means we should start ordering water. So, let this be a lesson to you. Anytime you walked into a bar but require a wheel chair to leave the same bar, your limits may have been achieved.
I think one of the the things that helps to keep most people in check on board a ship is having to sign a receipt showing how much you have just spent each time a new drink arrives. It's sort of sobering for most of us. A drink dispenser in your room might actually have to run out of alcohol to have the same sobering effect and by then, it could be too late.
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